HSBC, Goldman, SocGen managed Libyan money: report

LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs and HSBC together held $335 million of the Libyan oil fund's assets, while Societe Generale held $1 billion in structured products for the fund, Global Witness said on Thursday.

The campaigning group for development issues said it had obtained a document from 2010 showing the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) held assets of $53 billion as of June 2010 -- lower than the previous estimate of around $70 billion.

The report gives a rare insight into the working of the secretive LIA, detailing the extent of involvement of Western banks in the state-owned fund whose assets have been frozen since March by the United States, Europe and Japan among others.

Global Witness said HSBC held $293 million across 10 accounts, while Goldman had $43 million in three accounts, denominated in dollars, pounds, Swiss francs, euros and Canadian dollars. Goldman Sachs and HSBC both declined comment.

A much larger portion of the LIA's deposits, $19 billion, was held in Libyan and Middle Eastern banks, including Libya's central bank, the Arab Banking Corporation and the British Arab Commercial Bank.